Study Abroad

Why Study Abroad?

Studying abroad is almost a one time opportunity and a benefit which individuals will only get to experience as college students. If you think about it, most individuals in their working life will only be entitled to a few weeks vacation time during the year. If you are lucky to go abroad for a short period then you get the excitement of experiencing a different culture for a brief moment in time. Studying abroad for a summer and/or a semester-/year-long exchange program gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in an entire culture for an extended time. In short, it is likely that you will never get a similar opportunity to live and immerse yourself in a different culture outside of your college days, mainly because of time constraints! In turn, this gives you the opportunity to learn or perfect your language skills, broaden your academic and professional development, as well as make new friends. Added to this, you are given the rare opportunity to see your own country from the outside, which helps mature or change your existing ideas about the world or a particular culture.

If you are interested in Turkey or are a current student of Turkish Studies and are thinking of studying abroad, you have a wide array of opportunities open to you. There are two broad categories of study abroad programs which you can choose to attend in Turkey:

Summer Study Abroad Sessions

The most popular are summer study abroad sessions, where you can attend a program put together by a U.S. based university. These programs, typically designed for the benefit of undergraduate students, last anywhere from six to eight weeks in length and can offer a combination of area studies and/or intensive Turkish language study.

Semester or Year-Long Exchange Programs

The other alternative is semester or year-long exchange programs. These are programs, again, typically designed for undergraduates, who are given the opportunity to study in Turkey, at a Turkish university for an extended period of time. The courses they take can sometimes be counted towards the major/minor programs they are studying for in their home institution in the U.S. In addition, students ordinarily do not have to pay the host Turkish institution additional fees.

Columbia University
Semester Program
1 semester (Fall or Spring)
İstanbul